February 5th, 2017. It's been 450 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no.45, and 378 days since the Jan 20th inauguration.
the rich asshole undecided on supporting Obama pollution treaty, adviser says
BY TIMOTHY CAMA - 02/05/18 01:17 PM EST
President the rich asshole hasn’t yet decided whether to support a treaty amendment that seeks to phase out the use of certain potent greenhouse gases, an adviser said.
George David Banks, the rich asshole’s adviser for international environmental policy, said at a Monday event that he and colleagues are still analyzing the 2016 pact to see if they’ll recommend that the president support it.
The Kigali Amendment, negotiated in part by the Obama administration, changed the 1987 Montreal Protocol to work toward a global phaseout of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), commonly used in refrigerants and air conditioning. They are hundreds of times more potent as greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide.
Domestic companies that make and use the chemicals support the amendment, as do environmental groups.
“While the administration recognizes that the amendment enjoys broad industry support, we need to carefully think this through and do our best to understand the economic, legal, political, the environmental aspects of the amendment,” Banks told a gathering at the Hudson Institute Monday.
“Before we provide a recommendation to the president, we will need to have a really — really good economic information, we’re going to have to have a real command of it,” he said.
“We understand that there’s broad industry support. But we really want to understand, in a more concrete way, a few things: how this benefits U.S. companies, how it preserves and creates U.S. jobs and how it can help the trade balance and help foster exports to other countries."
Banks said if the rich asshole does support the agreement, he would submit it to the Senate for ratification, which would require a two-thirds majority vote.
the rich asshole’s potential support for Kigali contrasts with his opposition to the Paris climate agreement, a more wide-ranging climate pact reached in 2015 by nearly 200 countries. the rich asshole in June said he would pull the United States out of that deal.
Judith Garber, a high-ranking career official at the State Department, signaled in November that the the rich asshole administration looks upon Kigali favorably.
“The United States believes the Kigali Amendment represents a pragmatic and balanced approach to phasing down the production and consumption of HFCs, and therefore we support the goals and approach of the amendment,” she said in Montreal, Canada, without saying whether the administration would fully support the pact.
The Montreal Protocol was written in 1987 with the goal of restoring the ozone layer. It had strong support from then-President Reagan, and has been seen as successful.
That treaty phased out ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons for HFCs. But HFCs, while better for the ozone, are destructive to the climate.
Banks said the White House is also examining whether implementing the Kigali Amendment would require additional legislation to allow the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to enforce HFC phaseouts.
But Jeff Holmstead, a former EPA official and current partner at law and lobbying firm Bracewell, argued it is unnecessary to separately implement the accord if the Senate ratifies it, since that process would give the EPA authority to regulate HFCs.
“Once it is ratified, there is a provision in the Clean Air Act that makes it very clear that the United States Environmental Protection Agency, under Title 6 of the Clean Air Act, has authority to implement that amendment,” Holmstead said at the Hudson Institute event.
“Congress determined in 1990 that that’s the very mechanism they wanted to have.”
The Obama EPA tried in 2015 to ban the use of HFCs, but a federal appeals court struck the rule down last year.
Dem fires back at the rich asshole: He 'doesn't know what "treason" means'
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 02/05/18 05:00 PM EST
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) fired back at President the rich asshole for saying Democrats were “treasonous” for not applauding him during his State of the Union, saying the rich asshole “doesn’t know what ‘treason’ means.”
"He should study Article III of the United States Constitution, which he clearly hasn't read,” Beyer tweeted Monday.
.@realDonaldTrump doesn't know what "treason" means. He should study Article III of the United States Constitution, which he clearly hasn't read.— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) February 5, 2018
The Founders were concerned that a despot might abuse their powers of office to attack political enemies. Smart people, the Founders. https://t.co/dipn2faX8K
Article III of the Constitution lays out the U.S. judicial system and includes the definition for treason.
“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort,” it reads.
The Democrat’s response came just hours after the rich asshole called Democrats “un-American” and “selfish” for not standing and applauding when he mentioned achievements from his first year in office during his State of the Union address last week.
"Can we call that treason? Why not?" the rich asshole said. "They certainly didn't seem to love our country very much."
He suggested that the lack of a show of support for him would make it difficult for him to work with Democrats on government spending and immigration legislation.
Fox News pulls plug on the rich asshole tax cut speech to break news of massive stock market sell-off
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The Fox News Channel on Monday surprised viewers by abruptly breaking away from President some rich asshole’s speech on the economy to give some bad news about the stock market.
As the rich asshole was in Ohio to tout the impact of the new Republican tax laws, Fox News cut away from his remarks to report that the Dow was plunging.
“We are interrupting for breaking news,” Fox News anchor Shep Smith said. “There is quite a drop happening on Wall Street. A massive sell-off is happening today.”
Watch video below:
BREAKING: Pennsylvania’s Republican gerrymander is finally dead
America takes a step back toward democracy.
On Monday, the Justice Samuel Alito rejected an effort by Republican leaders in Pennsylvania to restore a Republican gerrymander that has allowed Republicans to dominate the state’s congressional delegation even in years when Democrats won the statewide popular vote.
Though stay requests such as this one are directed to a single justice as a matter of process, that justice typically refers the matter to the full Court if they believe that the request raises a serious legal argument. The fact that Alito, a staunch conservative, unilaterally denied this request speaks to the weakness of the GOP’s claims.
Last month, the state supreme court ordered new maps drawn for the 2018 election. Now that the Supreme Court of the United States has officially stayed its hand, the state’s gerrymandered congressional districts are all but certain to become a relic of the past.
The Republican leaders’ effort to reinstate their gerrymandered maps was always a long shot. Pennsylvania’s supreme court decision relied entirely on the state constitution, and the United States Supreme Court does not have the authority to overrule a state supreme court’s interpretation of state law. Nevertheless, the Republican leaders raised arguments that conflict with a line of precedents that the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed as recently as 2015.
Had the Republicans prevailed, they could have potentially changed the outcome of the 2018 midterm elections. Under the gerrymandered maps, Republicans have won 13 of 18 seats in the state’s congressional district every year since 2012 — even though Democrats won the statewide popular vote in 2012.
Last week, Pennsylvania Senate President pro tempore Joseph Scarnati (R) told the state supreme court that he would not comply with parts of its anti-gerrymandering order. Now that the state supreme court’s decision is officially safe from molestation, Scarnati is likely to find himself in contempt of court if he does not change his tune.
Supreme Court denies GOP request to block Pennsylvania gerrymandering decision
BY LYDIA WHEELER, LISA HAGEN AND AVERY ANAPOL - 02/05/18 12:43 PM EST
The Supreme Court on Monday denied Republican requests to delay a Pennsylvania state court ruling requiring the state’s congressional map be redrawn, increasing the likelihood that the map will be redrawn ahead of November's midterm elections.
Pennsylvania is a fierce battleground state, with a half-dozen House seats now held by Republicans seen as competitive.
If the legislative map is redrawn in a way that benefits Democrats, it could help the party in its drive to retake the House. Republicans currently control 12 of Pennsylvania’s 18 congressional districts.
Justice Samuel Alito, the member of the court who hears emergency requests from states, denied the efforts — one from state GOP lawmakers and another from Republican voters in the state — for a stay of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s January ruling that the state’s congressional map had been drawn in a way that unfairly favored Republicans.
The Supreme Court's Public Information Office did not provide any further explanation.
The decision is a significant victory for opponents of gerrymandering, who have also taken the fight to Texas, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Federal courts in those states also ordered new maps to be drawn for the 2018 midterms.
But Pennsylvania is the only state where the Supreme Court hasn’t halted the lower court's decision.
In their request to Alito, GOP lawmakers argued that the state Supreme Court usurped Pennsylvania's legislative authority in tossing out the map.
"Redistricting involves lawmaking in its essential features and most important aspect,” the lawmakers wrote, quoting Supreme Court precedent. “But for the first time in United States history, a state court, in attempting to play the role of ‘lawmaker,’ has invalidated a congressional districting plan without identifying a violation of the U.S. Constitution or a state constitutional or statutory provision providing specific redistricting criteria.”
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s original ruling gave state lawmakers until Feb. 9 to submit a new map to Gov. Tom Wolf (D), who would then need to submit a plan to the court by Feb. 15. If they failed to meet that deadline, the court would redraw the map.
While it’s unclear how the districts will be redrawn, Democrats are expected to benefit from new congressional lines. Democrats need to flip 24 seats in order to take back the House majority.
Some nonpartisan election handicappers predict that Democrats’ prospects will increase in open-seat races that will be vacated by GOP Reps. Pat Meehan and Charlie Dent. Hillary Clinton narrowly won Meehan’s district, while President the rich asshole carried Dent’s seat in the 2016 presidential election.
Other GOP-held seats that could be impacted by new lines are seats held by Pennsylvania Reps. Ryan Costello and Brian Fitzpatrick. Clinton won Costello’s district and lost by a razor-thin margin in Fitzpatrick’s.
The Monday decision comes after the Supreme Court in September put two rulings on hold that required Texas officials to redraw both the state’s congressional and legislative districts.
And in January, the Supreme Court told state officials in North Carolinathey don’t have to redraw their map yet. The court temporarily blocked a lower court order to redraw the state’s congressional lines by the end of the month, as the case was appealed to the Supreme Court.
Paul Ryan was humiliated after boasting that the GOP tax cuts saved a secretary $1.50 a week. Now he's being humiliated all over again.
House Speaker Paul Ryan had a rough weekend.
On Saturday, Ryan tried to dispute the charge that the GOP tax bill was a handout to corporations and billionaires at the expense of the middle class, by tweeting about a Lancaster, Pennsylvania, high school secretary whose take-home pay increased by $1.50 a week. It was an incredibly patronizing remark that drew immediate backlash and caused him to delete the tweet in humiliation.
But the internet is forever, and activists promptly made the $1.50 pay raise a rallying cry in favor of his Democratic opponent, Racine steelworker and union leader Randy Bryce.
According to a spokesperson from Bryce’s office, speaking to Shareblue Media, “From Saturday through 1 p.m. on Sunday, we raised $130,000 from 10,600 contributions.” Furthermore, 5,100 of those contributions were $1.50.
It is clear that Ryan’s laughable attempt to pretend the tax scam would benefit the middle class has completely backfired.
Ryan is desperate for the tax bill, which was rammed through Congress without regular order and without a single Democratic vote, to be a political win in a landscape where House Republicans are gravely threatened. He even tried to claim Democrats are only criticizing the partisan abuses of House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes as a ploy to distract from the supposed benefits working people were receiving.
But the benefits he is touting are paltry at best. Very few companies are offering permanent pay raises to employees as a result of the tax bill. Some are offering one-time bonus checks that are smaller than the forecasted increase in health insurance premiums the tax cuts will cause. And some corporations, like Kimberly-Clark and Harley-Davidson, are actually using the tax cuts to lay people off.
If Ryan thinks working people should celebrate a tax benefit of $1.50 a week, it is only natural that many of them would be putting that money toward getting him out of office.
the rich asshole official: Medicaid work requirements a form of 'true compassion'
BY NATHANIEL WEIXEL - 02/05/18 12:39 PM EST
A top the rich asshole administration official says Medicaid work requirements are a form of “true compassion” that aim to help poor people overcome poverty.
“True compassion is lifting Americans most in need out of difficult circumstances,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma said in a Washington Post column Monday.
“This administration stands for a policy that makes Medicaid a path out of poverty by empowering states to tailor programs that meet the unique needs of their citizens,” Verma wrote.
On Friday, Indiana became just the second state in the 53-year history of the Medicaid program to gain federal approval to institute work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries.
The rich asshole administration approved Kentucky’s request in January, and 11 other states are awaiting approval of similar requests to change their Medicaid programs. The administration released guidance last month that encouraged states to institute work requirements and detailed the types of policies the administration would be likely to approve.
“We applaud their efforts to strengthen the Medicaid program and are supportive of testing approaches to end poverty and improve outcomes,” Verma said in her column.
Some states previously asked the Obama administration for permission to institute work requirements but were denied. CMS officials in the Obama administration said they were flexible in letting states experiment with different Medicaid changes but drew the line at work requirements.
Democrats and health advocates believe work requirements are a deliberate barrier to care. They argue that many Medicaid beneficiaries are already working, and forcing them to jump through bureaucratic hoops just to get health coverage is not compassion.
In @washingtonpost op-ed @SeemaCMS again makes clear that the Trump Admin, having failed to repeal the ACA, is using #Medicaid work requirements to roll back recent back coverage gains washingtonpost.com/opinions/makin…
States that expanded Medicaid under ObamaCare experienced significant decreases in the numbers of uninsured people, and advocates say work requirements are a way for the rich asshole administration to roll back those coverage gains.
Senate documents show FBI trying to suppress release of new the rich asshole dossier info
BY SHARYL ATTKISSON, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 02/05/18 11:05 AM EST
Republican senators Charles Grassley (Iowa) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) on Monday released a letter they sent to the FBI asking that ex-British spy Christopher Steele be investigated for possible criminal violations. Steele authored the anti-the rich asshole “dossier” that was full of false or unverified information, provided to the FBI and leaked to the press in 2016.
The FBI secretly used the Steele dossier to convince a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to permit one of the most sensitive invasions of privacy against a U.S. citizen: electronic surveillance by the government. Top Obama and the rich asshole officials signed four wiretap applications against the rich asshole adviser Carter Page starting in fall of 2016 — a month before the presidential election — relying, in part, on the dossier. That’s according to House Republicans who, on Friday, released a summary of classified documents they reviewed.
The FBI’s reliance on the anti-the rich asshole dossier is questionable because while the judge was reportedly told the author had political motivations, the FBI allegedly did not disclose who funded it: some rich asshole’s chief opponent in the presidential race — the Hillary Clinton campaign — and the Democratic National Committee.
Not only that, the newly-released criminal referral says Steele actually incorporated information that was funneled to him through Clinton associates and the U.S. State Department where Clinton had served as Secretary of State from 2009 to early 2013. In a memo dated Oct. 19, 2016, Steele wrote that a foreign source who was in touch with “a friend of the Clintons” passed him material through a U.S. State Department connection.
Even more problematic, the FBI may have violated strict rules — Woods Procedures — that forbid it from presenting even a single unverified fact to the special court, let alone a lengthy dossier full of them.
The criminal referral unveiled today says Steele's possible violations involve claims he reportedly made about his dealings with the media. Conflicting accounts arose as part of a lawsuit in Great Britain where Steele is defending a libel claim made by a Russian businessman. Steele publicly accused him of hacking the Democratic Party. The criminal referral is not a formal accusation of wrongdoing against Steele, but a request for an investigation.
Conflicts of interest?
In the bigger picture, the criminal referral highlights conflicts of interest questions emerging in the wide-ranging investigations:
The Steele criminal referral in essence asks the FBI to investigate a source with whom FBI officials collaborated, and whose evidence they used in a fashion that’s under congressional investigation.
The referral was addressed to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosensteinwho himself signed at least one of the questionable wiretap applications using the Steele dossier.
It was also addressed to FBI Director Christopher Wray whose choice for general counsel, Dana Boente, also signed at least one of the wiretap applications. Boente replaced James Baker, a confidante of former FBI Director James Comey, who signed three of the wiretap applications. (Baker was reassigned in December after questions arose about leaks promoting the anti-the rich asshole material in the dossier. Last June, Comey admitted that he secretly orchestrated a leak to the press to prompt a special counsel investigation of any the rich asshole-Russia ties. Robert Mueller was appointed two days later.)
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MORE BY SHARYL ATTKISSON
- Nunes memo raises question: Did FBI violate Woods Procedures?
- New FBI messages reveal agents sought way to evade federal record requirements
- As walls close in on FBI, the bureau lashes out at its antagonists
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Other potential conflicts of interest became apparent when senators Grassley and Graham asked the FBI for permission to release the Steele criminal referral last month. Grassley says the FBI stonewalled — then claimed that unclassified information was actually classified and said it could not be released.
Unlike the House of Representatives, which has processes allowing members to release formerly classified material without FBI approval, the Senate requires the FBI’s permission.
That’s why the documents released today still contain significant blacked out or redacted portions. The FBI’s explanation for that is also partly redacted. FBI Assistant Director for Congressional Affairs Gregory Bower stated “the FBI cannot and will not weaken its commitment to protecting [redacted]. Public reporting about [redacted] does not affect the FBI’s policy with respect to classification [redacted] nor does it diminish our obligations [redacted].”
Page, the target of at least four secret government wiretaps, has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) is an Emmy-award winning investigative journalist, author of The New York Times bestsellers “The Smear” and “Stonewalled,” and host of Sinclair’s Sunday TV program “Full Measure.”
This is how desperate Republicans are to spin for the rich asshole.
some rich asshole’s Republican enablers are going to absurd lengths to cover for him, but good journalists are not falling for it.
Rep. Tom Garrett (R-VA) learned that lesson Monday, when he tried to squeeze out a pair of whoppers on CNN and ran smack into unwavering anchor Brianna Keilar.
Garrett spent several minutes trying to liken the Russia investigation to the racist “birther” smear against President Obama, when Keilar cut him off.
“Why do you equate the two?” Keilar asked, pointing out that Obama was, indeed, born in the United States, rendering the claim false on its face.
“And when you look at this investigation,” Keilar continued, “Russia meddled in the election, and then there were some contacts, between either associates or members of the rich asshole campaign, with Kremlin-backed Russians …”
Garrett tried to interrupt, but Keilar cut him off. “Whether there was some sort of nefarious intent, whether there was some sort of obstruction of justice that percolated out of this, that is what Mueller is trying to investigate.” She also pointed out that the birther lie “was really spearheaded by president the rich asshole.”
Garrett then tried to claim that people just can’t help but meet with the occasional Russian.
“You don’t get to pick the people with whom you interact, and so what we’ve seen is much ado about nothing —”
“Well, you get to decide who comes into the rich asshole Tower, congressman,” Keilar interrupted.
After Garrett sidetracked the discussion, Keilar returned to the point near the end of the interview.
“You say you can’t know who you have contact with,” she said. “You do get to decide who you invite to the rich asshole Tower for a meeting, is one example.”
“some rich asshole didn’t invite anybody into the rich asshole Tower, right?” Garret said.
“I’m talking about his son,” Keilar replied. “I’m talking about Paul Manafort, the head of the campaign. I’m talking about Jared Kushner.”
In fact, what special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating bears no resemblance to the racist “birther” fantasy that propelled the rich asshole to political prominence. Keilar pointed out just a few of the many verified facts that show the rich asshole campaign’s effort to collude with Russia, and didn’t even go into the obstruction of justice that the rich asshole has repeatedly committed in broad daylight.
Garrett’s claim that the rich asshole campaign’s Russian contacts are “much ado about nothing,” which withered in seconds thanks to some rich asshole Jr.’s the rich asshole Tower meeting, also doesn’t account for the 19-and-counting additional contacts with the Russians, or the failure to disclose them, or the rich asshole’s own private Oval Office meeting with Russians.
the rich asshole’s fantasies of vindication may go over on Fox News, but under the gaze of an impartial journalist, reality quickly overtakes them.
"Americans are really upset with politics as usual, and I want to be a voice for them."
some rich asshole has been accused of harassing and assaulting so many women over the years that it was really only a matter of time before one of them decided to run for office.
Rachel Crooks, who accused the rich asshole of kissing her without her consent in the office building where she worked as a receptionist in 2005, has become that woman. A Democrat and first-time candidate, Crooks now joins the historic number of women lining up to challenge the rich asshole’s Republican Party.
Crooks is running to become the Democratic candidate in the 88th district for Ohio’s state legislature, which is currently represented by Republican Rep. Bill Reineke. The candidate says her campaign will focus on job creation, affordable health care, and fixing the state’s education system.
She currently works as a college recruiter in Ohio.
During the 2016 campaign, Crooks was among the more than one dozen women who came forward to detail their allegations of assault at the hands of then-candidate the rich asshole.
“I think my voice should have been heard then, and I’ll still fight for it to be heard now,” Crooks told Cosmopolitan, in announcing her plans to run for office. “Americans are really upset with politics as usual, and I want to be a voice for them.”
Recently, as the cultural #MeToo movement gained momentum, Crooks was among the women who urged Congress to investigate previous claims of the rich asshole’s harassment and assault.
“I want to believe that as Americans we can put aside our political inclinations and admit some things do in fact transcend politics, that we will hold some rich asshole to the same standard as Harvey Weinstein and the other men who were held accountable for their reprehensible behavior,” she stressed.
Crooks now joins what’s emerging as a cultural and political phenomena, as an unprecedented number of women enter American politics in the ages of the rich asshole.
“To date, 390 women are planning to run for the House of Representatives, a figure that’s higher than at any point in American history,” New York magazine recently reported. “Twenty-two of them are non-incumbent black women — for scale, there are only 18 black women in the House right now. Meanwhile, 49 women are likely to be running for the Senate, more than 68 percent higher than the number who’d announced at the same point in 2014.”
Meanwhile, EMILY’s List, a group that trains and funds pro-choice women and helps them run for office, has been contacted by more than 30,000 women since the rich asshole was elected who have expressed interest in running for office. By contrast, during the entire 2016 election cycle, EMILY’s List heard from a total of 900 women.
That eruption of enthusiasm runs parallel with the stampede away from the rich asshole and the GOP among women voters.
Asked which party they would vote for in the midterm elections, 64 percent of American women in a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll said they would pull the lever for a Democratic candidate, compared to just 29 percent for Republicans — a stunning 35-point advantage for Democrats.
the rich asshole’s decision this year to support an Alabama candidate for the U.S. Senate who was accused of molesting young girls likely didn’t help the GOP’s appeal with women voters.
GOP lawmaker: FBI should drop Russia probe because we never investigated Obama’s birth certificate
Brianna Keilar speaks to Tom Garrett (CNN/screen grab)
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Rep. Tom Garrett Jr. (R-VA) on Monday likened the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. elections to President some rich asshole’s racist “birtherism” campaign to convince Americans that President Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen.
“This Russia investigation is essentially birtherism,” Garrett told CNN’s Brianna Keilar. “Imagine if there was a politically funded investigation of President Obama’s place of birth where the levers of power were leveraged.”
“Do you think Russia didn’t meddle?” Keilar asked. “Is that why you mean it’s birtherism?”
“The question is what the American government does to its own people against the Fourth Amendment right to privacy,” Garrett replied.
The lawmaker called on Congress to release classified documents that we prepared when the FBI requested surveillance of former the rich asshole campaign aide Carter Page.
“Watergate was a bunch of political hacks [but] these are employees of the federal government,” he opined. “And so what’s at stake here isn’t Republican or Democrat, it’s about who we are as a country.”
Keilar, however, seemed puzzled by the comparison to birtherism.
“Why do you equate the two?” she asked. “I mean, President Obama was born in the United States and when you look at this investigation, one, Russia meddled in the election and then there were some contacts between either associates or members of the rich asshole campaign with Kremlin-backed Russians.”
“I guess I don’t understand why you’re equating birtherism, which by the way was really spearheaded by President the rich asshole, with this Russia investigation that is spearheaded right now by Robert Mueller,” Keilar said.
For his part, Garrett insisted that it was unfair to criticize the rich asshole campaign for meeting Russians.
“Any contact then becomes the smoking gun?” Garrett complained. “That’s ridiculous. So, the crazy people who made aspersions against President Obama didn’t have the wight of the federal government being brought to bear to sort of flesh out those aspersions.”
Watch the video below from CNN.
‘Bless his heart’: CNN’s Bakari Sellers ruthlessly mocks the rich asshole over tweet praising Nunes as ‘Great American Hero’
Bakari Sellers (Photo: Screen capture)
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Democratic political strategist Bakari Sellers couldn’t help drop a little shade on President some rich asshole’s Monday morning Twitterstorm.
The president claimed that Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) should one day be considered a hero for his memo attacking the FBI and Department of Justice.
“I think this is why a lot of people have confidence in the Russia probe and [special counsel Bob] Mueller are going to go unimpeded by the White House and anyone else, because this whole offensive is led by Devin Nunes,” Sellers said. “What we say in South Carolina is ‘bless his heart.’ It appears he’s in over his head.”
Sellers said that the memo was “much ado about nothing” and “the leadership he’s displayed is less than that.” He went on to question the fortitude and intellectual capacity for Nunes to upend the investigation with anything substantial.
“Look, if some rich asshole and Devin Nunes want to die on the proverbial hill that is Carter Page, then so be it,” Sellers continued. “That just doesn’t sound like sound political strategy or sound legal strategy at all.”
Watch the commentary below:
the rich asshole: Nunes may be recognized as 'Great American Hero'
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 02/05/18 10:26 AM EST
President the rich asshole on Monday praised House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) for “what he has had to endure” after the congressman led efforts to release a classified memo that accuses the Justice Department of surveillance abuses.
“Representative Devin Nunes, a man of tremendous courage and grit, may someday be recognized as a Great American Hero for what he has exposed and what he has had to endure!” the rich asshole tweeted.
Representative Devin Nunes, a man of tremendous courage and grit, may someday be recognized as a Great American Hero for what he has exposed and what he has had to endure!
The tweet came not long after the rich asshole launched an attack on the ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), whom the president accused of being "one of the biggest liars" in Washington.
Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper! Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!
Schiff later fired back at the rich asshole, telling him to stop tweeting "false smears" and help "solve the funding crisis, [protect] Dreamers or...really anything else."
Mr. President, I see you’ve had a busy morning of “Executive Time.” Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or...really anything else. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
Staff for Nunes authored the four-page memo, which was released Friday. It accuses senior Justice Department officials of improperly using information from the controversial "Steele dossier" — which originated as an opposition research document during the 2016 campaign — to obtain surveillance warrants on Carter Page, a member of the rich asshole transition team and former the rich asshole campaign adviser.
Schiff suggested Sunday that it's possible Nunes worked with the White House in crafting the memo.
Democrats have called for the House Intelligence Committee to release the party's countermemo, which reportedly addresses claims in the Republican document. The committee is expected to vote Monday on the Democratic memo.
Republican Rep. Devin Nunes will say anything to cover for the rich asshole, even if it's obviously not true.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) has been covering up for some rich asshole since his committee’s investigation began, but now he’s telling lies that are stunning even by his low standards.
Nunes appeared on “Fox & Friends” Monday to echo the White House’s new line of attack: accusing Democrats on his committee of “over a hundred” leaks of classified information. But his lies about the Russia investigation stood out even more boldly.
Co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Nunes about the central premise of his debunked intelligence memo, asking him to respond to critics who say, “What about Papadopoulos, they were looking at him earlier? Why don’t you look at that?”
Kilmeade was referring to the rich asshole campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty and is now a cooperating witness in the Mueller probe.
Nunes tried to use the rich asshole line that Papadopoulos was not a major figure in the campaign.
“As far as we can tell,” Nunes said, “Papadopoulos never even knew who the rich asshole was — you know, never even had met with the president.”
He then characterized Papadoupolos’ boasts about the Russian government having “dirt” on Hillary Clinton as nothing more than “getting drunk in London and talking to diplomats, saying that you don’t like Hillary Clinton.”
Nunes is already famous for never having read the intelligence that went into his own memo, but he would have needed to avoid the entire internet to have missed the photo of Papadopoulos meeting with the rich asshole as part of his “national security team,” which was posted on the rich asshole’s instagram — complete with campaign graphics.
some rich asshole
George Papadopoulos at the rich asshole campaign meeting 03/31/2016
Nunes’ lack of concern over political opinions stands in stark contrast to his party’s crusade against FBI agents who expressed a variety of opinions in text messages, but his description of Papadopulos’ encounter in London is also a lie. The then rich asshole adviser boasted to an Australian diplomat that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin had “dirt” on Clinton, which that diplomat then relayed to U.S. intelligence authorities.
Nunes has proven himself untrustworthy on countless occasions, yet despite a feint at recusing himself, remains entangled in the House investigation into Russia. These blatant lies should be the last straw for any reasonable person, Republican or Democrat.
Last week, Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer publicly called on Speaker Paul Ryan to removeNunes from his role in the intelligence committee. As Pelosi wrote, “The integrity of the House is at stake.”
It’s time for Ryan to do his job and remove Nunes before he does any more damage.
‘This man is unhinged’: Dem lawmaker appalled by the rich asshole’s bizarre order that ‘Little Adam Schiff must be stopped’
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) (Screencap).
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Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) on Monday reacted with shock and horror to President some rich asshole’s tweet that seemingly called on Republicans to stop Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) from releasing a memo that debunks many of the claims put forth by a memo released last week by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA).
During a CNN interview, Connolly was asked to respond to the president’s tweet, in which he declared that “Little Adam Schiff… must be stopped.”
Connolly did not pull any punches in his response.
“This man is unhinged,” the Virginia Democrat said. “That kind of tweet from the President of the United States makes no sense at all if you have nothing to worry about. If you already feel that the Republican Nunes memo was exculpatory, what are you worried about?”
Connolly then said that he was very disturbed by the president’s order to “stop” Schiff, and he said it reminded him of something you’d hear in a dictatorship rather than a democracy.
“To actually use those chilling words — ‘he must be stopped’ — that’s the kind of language you hear in an authoritarian regime somewhere overseas, it’s not the kind of language we use in democratic discourse in the United States,” he said, while also noting that the rich asshole’s tweet seemed to be an “incitement” to get people within the government to stop additional information about the FBI’s surveillance of former the rich asshole campaign adviser Carter Page from getting out.
Watch the video below.
Dow plunges more than 1,000 points, dropping below 25,000
BY SYLVAN LANE - 02/05/18 09:38 AM EST
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by more than 1,000 points Monday, the biggest daily loss in its history, plunging below the 25,000 threshold it surpassed in January.
The Dow was down 1,029 points by 3:07 p.m. Monday, surpassing the 777-point loss triggered by the House's rejection of a bank bailout plan in October 2008.
U.S. stock markets opened trading Monday with heavy losses as investors braced for a series of expected Federal Reserve rate hikes.
The Dow opened 183 points lower than its Friday close of 25,520, starting the week at 25,337. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 also opened with losses, down 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively
Monday’s losses come after the worst week for U.S stocks in two years. The Dow dropped 665 points Friday and closed more than 1,000 points lower than the previous week’s record high close at 26,616. It was the biggest single drop in a day for the Dow since June 2016.
Breaking from prior administrations, President the rich asshole and his top economic officials have tied themselves closely to the performance of the stock market.
As the Dow added 8,000 points over his first year, the rich asshole routinely took credit for the booming market and improving economy.
"The stock market has smashed one record after another, gaining $8 trillion in value," the rich asshole said during the State of the Union last week.
The White House told CNBC on Monday, “We’re always concerned when the market loses any value, but we’re also confident in the economy’s fundamentals.”
Investors are selling stocks in part because of signs of a strengthening economy, which many think will lead the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.
The Fed raised rates three times last year and is expected to raise rates at least three times in 2018. The Fed has seen inflation lag below a 2 percent target, but the growing economy has many convinced that inflation may gather steam. Interest rate hikes would be designed to keep inflation around 2 percent.
John Williams, president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, said Friday that three or four hikes in 2018 were possible, but downplayed more aggressive rate hikes, according to Reuters.
“The expansion is proceeding at a good pace, unemployment is low, and inflation is finally headed in the right direction again,” he said after a speech in San Francisco.
Treasury bond yields have increased as the sell-off continues, reflecting investors' concerns about the depth of a stock market correction.
Dow futures sunk 190 points in overnight trading, while S&P and Nasdaq futures dropped 14.5 points and 34.5 points, respectively.
Analysts are also concerned that falling energy and commodities prices reflect a global lag in demand, which could stunt several years of global economic growth.
Updated at 3:40 p.m.
the rich asshole insists Devin Nunes will go down in history as a ‘Great American Hero’ in bonkers tweet
Pres. some rich asshole gives an angry response during an interview (Screen capture)
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President some rich asshole on Monday praised Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) as a “Great American Hero” for his role in releasing a controversial memo that critics have assailed for providing a misleading picture of the FBI’s actions in 2016.
“Representative Devin Nunes, a man of tremendous courage and grit, may someday be recognized as a Great American Hero for what he has exposed and what he has had to endure!” the rich asshole wrote on Twitter.
Nunes on Friday released a memo that aimed to undercut the FBI’s role in investigating President some rich asshole’s presidential campaign, as it purported to show alleged surveillance abuses related to Carter Page, a former the rich asshole foreign policy adviser who had once openly boasted about his connections to the Kremlin.
Rachel Crooks accused the rich asshole of sexual assault — now she’s running for office
“I think my voice should have been heard then, and I'll still fight for it to be heard now."
A woman who has accused President the rich asshole of forcibly kissing her in the rich asshole Tower in 2005 has declared her candidacy for a state legislature seat in Ohio.
The woman, Rachel Crooks, first spoke publicly about the alleged incident in October 2016, and in the months since, she has been inspired to mount her first run for office. Cosmopolitan first reported that Crooks was running for office Monday.
“I think my voice should have been heard then,” Crooks told Cosmo, referencing her choice to accuse the rich asshole of sexual misconduct during the 2016 election, “and I’ll still fight for it to be heard now. Americans are really upset with politics as usual, and I want to be a voice for them.”
Crooks told the magazine that she’s upset that the rich asshole hasn’t been held accountable for his alleged sexual misconduct and abuse and that her run for office is a way of taking direct action, saying, “I think there will be a lot of people who see value in [my campaign] … But I hope more so because I’m a viable candidate rather than a participant in the #MeToo movement.”
Crooks plans to focus on job creation, access to affordable health care, and education. One big issue, she said, is the fact that charter schools in Ohio are given about $1 billion a year with little accountability. Crooks aims to redirect that money into the state’s public schools.
Crooks already has the backing of the Ohio State Democratic Party, according to Cosmo, and, if she wins the Democratic primary in May, she’ll face two-term incumbent Republican Rep. Bill Reineke. The district, located outside of Toledo, voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012, but flipped for the rich asshole in 2016. But Crooks said she’s hopeful about her prospects.
“Democrats are here. But it almost felt like we didn’t know that we were out there,” Crooks said. “I think there’s this momentum now that the rich asshole has been elected, that we know there are more of us out there, and we’re more active in politics.”
Crooks said she knows people will criticize her decision to run for office, say she’s just trying to cash out on her 15 minutes of fame, but she said she’s prepared.
“I think I’ve read and seen about as negative of things as I can about myself,” Crooks said, referring to criticism when she came forward during the election. But, she said, “Women are uniting. The momentum is now. I want to be part of it.”
Crooks is certainly right about that momentum: She is joining a record number of women running for office in 2018.
On the national level, 390 women are planning to run for the House of Representatives, including 22 non-incumbent black women. (There are currently only 18 back women in the House.) 49 women plan to run for Senate seats, a figure 68 percent higher than the number who had announced in January of 2014. A record number of women are running for governor, as well.
Many of them, like Crooks, were inspired to run by the #MeToo movement. Last month, a woman named Yolanda Anguiano, who accused a California state assemblyman of harassment, filed papers to run for his seat.
Like Crooks, Anguiano said she knows people will criticize the decision to run.
“People are going to say what they want,” Anguiano told The Los Angeles Times.
But it doesn’t matter, at least according to Crooks, who said she “didn’t necessarily see [herself]” as someone who could run for office.
“We’ve been historically underrepresented in politics,” Crooks said Monday, but, she added, “Once you hear it a few times, you start to believe it a little bit, and fully consider it. Once I sat down and mulled it over, I felt like it really was a duty that I had, that I should take on this responsibility firsthand and try to make a difference for other people.”
At least 14 women have accused the rich asshole of sexual misconduct. The White House denies all allegations.
Republicans stepped on a rake and now they need a plan to distract the public from the humiliation.
After promising the release of its anti-FBI intelligence memo would be “bigger than Watergate” and that public officials would be sent to prison because of its shocking revelations, House Republicans were left scrambling in the wake of the memo’s implosion.
Widely seen as a public relations flop, and even a social media punch line, the GOP failures now means the party needs to come up with a new strategy to protect some rich asshole from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia and obstruction of justice investigation.
Now House Republicans who were responsible for the memo charade, including California’s Devin Nunes, are cooking up new memo releases they insist will show wrongdoing. And as they often do when they want to change the subject, they’re turning to Hillary Clinton in hopes they can use her as a permanent distraction and whip up enough hysteria among the rich asshole’s fanatic base followers so they’ll forget that the FBI memo failed to deliver.
“Republicans close to Nunes say there could be as many as five additional memos or reports of ‘wrongdoing,'” Axios reports. “A Republican source briefed on Nunes’ investigations told me some of the work focuses on the activities of two longtime backers of Bill and Hillary Clinton: Sid Blumenthal and controversial activist Cody Shearer.”
Does his brand of desperation sound quite familiar?
“On the orders of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Justice Department prosecutors have begun asking FBI agents to explain the evidence they found in a now dormant criminal investigation into a controversial uranium deal that critics have linked to Bill and Hillary Clinton,” NBC News reported last month
Uranium One!
Also, from January: “Justice Department officials are taking a fresh look at Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she served as secretary of State,” the Daily Beast reported. “Officials’ questions include how much classified information was sent over Clinton’s server; who put that information into an unclassified environment, and how; and which investigators knew about these matters and when.”
But her emails!
It’s just the latest proof of how House Republicans no longer see themselves as functioning in an independent branch of the government, but instead as an appendage of the White House, and eager to do its bidding.
Indeed, last week a clearly distraught Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, confirmed that Democrats had been told “for the first time” that Republicans on the committee had already opened up partisan investigations into the Department of Justice and State Department.
The move demolished any idea that the committee was still investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the rich asshole campaign. Instead, the rogue committee has now set its sights on trying to take down those investigating the rich asshole. Or at the very least, to protect the rich asshole from sharp inquiries.
And these days, that’s a full-time job.
the rich asshole replies to 7-year-old who wrote to White House after her friend was shot in school shooting
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 02/05/18 08:58 AM EST
President the rich asshole assured a young girl that he would protect Americans after she wrote to him asking how he’d keep kids safe from guns, The Washington Post reported.
Ava Olsen, now 8, was at a South Carolina school in 2016 when a 14-year-old opened fire. Her best friend died in the shooting, and Olsen wrote the president last August asking what could be done to stop such events, The Washington Post reported Sunday.
“Schools are places where children learn and grow with their friends. Their halls should be free of fear. It is my goal as President to make sure that children in America grow up in safe environments, giving them the best opportunity to realize their full potential,” the rich asshole wrote.
the rich asshole thanked Olsen for her letter and sent his condolences for the loss of her friend.
Olsen then wrote another letter after she noticed the president didn’t say specifically how he would keep kids safe, The Washington Post reported.
Her follow-up letter included ideas of her own, the newspaper reported, including moving schools to safer places and building schools in circles with playgrounds located in the center.
Roughly a dozen school shootings have taken place since the start of 2018. In recent weeks, a student at a Texas high school was shot, two students were killed at a Kentucky high school and two students at a Los Angeles middle school were shot in a classroom.
In the wake of the Kentucky shooting, NBC News reporter Peter Alexander pressed White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on what the rich asshole was doing to stop school shootings. Sanders then accused Alexander of saying the rich asshole was being "complicit" in the shootings.
‘Hope this is fake news’: Newly revealed memos show horrified reaction inside FBI to Comey firing
Former FBI director James Comey released an explosive statement on his contacts with President some rich asshole a day ahead of his testimony to Congress. (AFP/File / Zach Gibson)
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FBI agents reacted with shock and alarm after President some rich asshole fired then-director James Comey, according to a newly released trove of internal bureau communications.
The White House claimed afterward that Comey had lost the confidence of the FBI’s “rank-and-file members,” but internal communications published Monday by the Lawfare Blog shows that’s not exactly true.
“I just saw CNN reporting that Director Comey has been fired by President the rich asshole,” wrote David Gelios, the special agent in charge of the Detroit field office, to his staff. “I have no notification from HQ of any such thing. If I receive any information from HQ, I will advise. I’d ask all to stand by for clarification of this reporting. I am only sending this because I want everyone to know I have received no HQ confirmation of the reporting. I hope this is an instance of fake news.”
Benjamin Wittes, a friend of Comey’s and a journalist specializing in law and national security, filed a request in June for FBI documents under the Freedom of Information Act — and he received the first 103 pages of those records over the weekend following a lawsuit against the bureau.
“(The FOIA request is intended) to show conclusively that President the rich asshole and his White House staff are lying about career federal law enforcement officers, their actions, and their attitudes,” Wittes said in the suit.
Those internal communications show many FBI employees learned of the May 9 firing from TV news, and they confirm previous Lawfare reporting that agents reacted with “shock” and “profound sadness.”
“On a personal note, I vehemently disagree with any negative assertions about the credibility of this institution or the people herein,” wrote Amy Hess, the special agent in charge in Louisville.
The assistant director of the International Operations Division described the mood two days afterward as “a whirlwind of shock at the suddenness of the departure of Director Comey and concern with what the future will hold.”
Comey’s deputy Andrew McCabe held a conference call the evening of the firing in one of his first duties as acting director, and he gave FBI management a timeline of the ouster and tried to reassure bureau chiefs of the FBI’s mission.
Multiple emails show that McCabe asked managers to emphasize the FBI’s ongoing mission after the president fired Comey amid the Justice Department’s investigation of the rich asshole campaign ties to Russia.
“The FBI mission remains the same, he said, and neither has the bureau’s responsibility to ‘protect the American people and uphold the Constitution,'” Lawfare reported McCabe as saying.
Conservative UK lawmaker hammers the rich asshole for attacking his country’s universal health care system
President some rich asshole, left, and U.K. Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Jeremy Hunt, right.
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Jeremy Hunt, a Conservative Member of Parliament who serves as the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, shot back at President some rich asshole for attacking his country’s health care system on Monday.
Responding to a tweet in which the rich asshole said that the U.K.’s National Health Service is “going broke and not working,” the Tory MP pointed out that his country’s system is still better than the system in the United States, no matter what other flaws it might have.
“Not ONE [U.K. citizen] wants to live in a system where 28 million people have no cover,” Hunt wrote in response to the rich asshole. “NHS may have challenges but I’m proud to be from the country that invented universal coverage — where all get care no matter the size of their bank balance.”
I may disagree with claims made on that march but not ONE of them wants to live in a system where 28m people have no cover. NHS may have challenges but I’m proud to be from the country that invented universal coverage - where all get care no matter the size of their bank balance twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
the rich asshole’s tweet bashing the NHS on Monday came after a “Fox & Friends” segment reported that demonstrators in the U.K. over the weekend protested against the British government for not adequately funding the service, which they say has led to a decline in the quality of British health care.
Devin Nunes denies colluding with White House: ‘Whatever Democrats accuse you of doing is what they’re doing’
Devin Nunes speaks to Fox News (screen grab)
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House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) insisted on Monday that he had not been coordinating with the White House to smear both the FBI and the investigation into Russian interference in U.S. elections.
During an interview on Fox & Friends, Nunes said that Democrats were spreading the “false narrative” that his office coordinated with the White House before releasing a memo that criticizes the FBI and Justice Department for extending surveillance on a former the rich asshole campaign staffer.
According to Nunes, Democrats are advocating for his removal from the Intelligence Committee because “we’ve been successful getting to the bottom of a lot of real problems for the institutions in our government.”
“There’s no question they want me gone,” he admitted. “But whatever they accuse you of doing is what they’re doing.”
Watch the video below from Fox News.
Some Eagles players planning to boycott White House visit
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 02/05/18 08:51 AM EST
Several players on the Philadelphia Eagles have said they are not planning to attend the traditional Super Bowl winners' White House visit this year.
Wide receiver Torrey Smith, defensive end Chris Long and safety Malcolm Jenkins are some of the players who have said they don't plan to participate in the visit to the White House, NJ.com reported.
The decisions come after President the rich asshole last year ignited controversy when he targeted players who kneeled in protest during the national anthem.
The protests began in 2016 with then-San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice.
Smith said last week that the players aren't protesting the anthem itself, but rather are protesting during the anthem. He said he understands why people may be mad or offended when someone takes a knee.
"My father when he dies, is going to be buried with an American flag draped around his casket, being that he served in the army," he said.
"I understand why some people are offended by it. Also, there are soldiers that have issues going on right now, and they are things that effect them. They're things that effect my father. He understands both sides of the issue."
the rich asshole's attempt to use Britain's universal health care system against Democrats backfired in a huge way.
some rich asshole started his Monday morning by doing something that has become a regular habit: live-tweeting Fox News. And this time it got him into international trouble.
Far-right former UKIP leader Nigel Farage appeared on “Fox & Friends,” talking about Britain’s National Health Service, the network of public hospitals and clinics funded by a consumer tax, which is universal and free to everyone in the U.K.
Immediately after this segment, the rich asshole jumped on Twitter and blasted the program as a failure.
This is about the most misguided, insulting thing the rich asshole could have said. As White House correspondent Andrew Beatty noted, the NHS is “about the most popular thing in the U.K.”
According to the Commonwealth Fund, British health care outperforms the United States in access, quality, efficiency, and overall outcomes, and Brits are very proud of this. In fact, before becoming president and toeing the GOP line, the rich asshole used to cite the NHS’s work in Scotland as a vision of what he thought health care in America should be.
Those protestors the rich asshole mentioned who were taking to the streets in London were actually demanding more resources for the NHS, accusing the Conservative Party of starving the program of funding. The protestors chanted, “Saving lives costs money, Saving money costs lives.” Not exactly a rallying cry for people who consider universal health care a failed investment.
the rich asshole was predictably scorched for his remarks in Britain. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said, “People are marching because we love our NHS and hate what the Tories are doing to it. Healthcare is a human right.” Even right-wing papers like The Sun warned the rich asshole was sparking a “diplomatic row.”
Most awkward of all, even Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative Health secretary the protestors were marching against, hit back against the rich asshole.
“I may disagree with claims made on that march but not ONE of them wants to live in a system where 28m people have no cover,” Hunt replied to the rich asshole’s tweet. “NHS may have challenges but I’m proud to be from the country that invented universal coverage – where all get care no matter the size of their bank balance.”
the rich asshole couldn’t be more wrong in his tweet on Britain’s health care protests
the rich asshole conflates universal coverage with single-payer, but the distinction is critical to parse out.
President some rich asshole took to Twitter Monday to criticize Britain’s health care system, and in the process, attacked a goal that many other industrialized democracies share: universal coverage.
the rich asshole may have unintentionally conflated the objective (universal coverage) with the pathway (single-payer), but this distinction is especially critical to parse out as more and more Democrats warm up to the idea of single-payer health care — a system in which a public insurance plan pays for all medically necessary services.
Bernie Sanders’ single-payer bill, “Medicare for All“, was a much-touted track toward reaching universal health care, but it’s hardly the only option on the table. Founding Executive Director of Families USA Ron Pollack suggested various alternatives to the status quo that inch closer to universality, like expanding Medicaid and extending coverage to more immigrants. Other Democrat lawmakers have also introduced their own bills. The objective for each of these proposals is to get more of the 28.1 million people without insurance covered for the sake of their health and financial well being.
Moreover, while conservatives continue push back against universal health care, support is growing. The majority agrees that it’s the government’s responsibility to ensure health care for all. The question is how?
The United States could benefit by looking at how other countries deliver and finance health care, as T.R. Reid suggests in his book The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care, which details how other countries designed their health care system. The developed world, with the exception of the United States, has concluded that it’s essential to cover all citizens — the rich asshole even supported this principle at one point — but how they accomplish this varies. Differences aside, most countries spend less on health care and achieve better results than the United States, including the United Kingdom:
But, of course, all health care systems have shortcomings, as is the case in Britain. A bit of background: the country’s National Health Service (NHS) goes further than other single-payer models as the health care is not only financed by the government through taxes, but most hospitals and doctors are also employed by the government. A New York Times article from last month described the dire situation in Britain right now:
At some emergency wards, patients wait more than 12 hours before they are tended to. Corridors are jammed with beds carrying frail and elderly patients waiting to be admitted to hospital wards. Outpatient appointments were canceled to free up staff members, and by Wednesday morning hospitals had been ordered to postpone nonurgent surgeries until the end of the month.Cuts to the National Health Service budget in Britain have left hospitals stretched over the winter for years, but this time a flu outbreak, colder weather and high levels of respiratory illnesses have put the N.H.S. under the highest strain in decades.
While many conservative outlets were quick to use Britain as an example for why a single-payer system is doomed to fail, they failed to examine the reason for the shortcomings. Austerity measures introduced by conservatives in 2010 as a response to financial turmoil have only increased under successive governments. Those policies have underfunded the NHS, making it increasingly hard for the organization to handle waves of patients. The cold and flu season has also hit the U.K. especially hard this season.
As such thousands took to the streets to demand more funding for the program, a point that was made by Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party on Twitter:
Wrong. People were marching because we love our NHS and hate what the Tories are doing to it. Healthcare is a human right. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
Even so, leaders there are by no means suggesting they should give up on universal health care. And they also aren’t suggesting they should model their system after the United States’ disjointed, complex health care system. In fact, Britain’s Health secretary Jeremy Hunt angrily responded to the rich asshole’s tweet, reminding him of the United States’ uninsured rate:
I may disagree with claims made on that march but not ONE of them wants to live in a system where 28m people have no cover. NHS may have challenges but I’m proud to be from the country that invented universal coverage - where all get care no matter the size of their bank balance twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
The big picture is that the rich asshole is among very few people who are suggesting that Britain should give up on a fundamental principle that health care access should not be contingent on income or geography.
‘Turn off the TV’: Rep. Adam Schiff blisters the rich asshole for watching cable news instead of doing his job
Rep. Adam Schiff (Photo: Screen capture)
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Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has responded to President some rich asshole’s Monday morning attack on Twitter.
President some rich asshole began his Twitterstorm less than a week after his State of the Union address demanding bipartisanship.
“Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper!” the president fumed. “Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!”
Schiff was respectful, with a little snark.
“Mr. President, I see you’ve had a busy morning of ‘Executive Time,'” Schiff tweeted. “Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or…really anything else.”
Mr. President, I see you’ve had a busy morning of “Executive Time.” Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or...really anything else. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
Schiff fires back at the rich asshole: Stop tweeting on 'Executive Time' and do something
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 02/05/18 09:17 AM EST
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Monday fired back at President the rich asshole after the rich asshole called the California Democrat "one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington."
"Mr. President, I see you’ve had a busy morning of 'Executive Time,' " Schiff tweeted.
"Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or...really anything else."
Mr. President, I see you’ve had a busy morning of “Executive Time.” Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or...really anything else. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
The tweet comes after the rich asshole on Monday accused Schiff of leaking confidential information.
“Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper!” the rich asshole tweeted, referring to the former FBI director, a Virginia senator, a former CIA chief and former national intelligence chief.
"Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!"
Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, has been a vocal critic of the rich asshole. In recent days, he became a central figure objecting to the release of a Republican-crafted memo that alleges surveillance abuses at the Department of Justice.
The four-page memo was released Friday after the rich asshole declassified the document. The president tweeted that it “totally vindicates” him in the ongoing probe into Russian election interference.
Schiff said this past weekend that the memo does “quite the opposite,” and multiple Republicans said Sunday that the memo does not vindicatethe rich asshole.
Schiff also warned Sunday that the rich asshole is trying to turn the Department of Justice into a “personal political tool.”
the rich asshole: ‘Little Adam Schiff’ one of the ‘biggest liars and leakers in Washington’
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 02/05/18 08:25 AM EST
President the rich asshole on Monday lashed out at Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), calling him “one of the biggest liars” in Washington and accusing him of leaking confidential information.
“Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with [James] Comey, [Sen. Mark] Warner, [John] Brennan and [James] Clapper!” the rich asshole tweeted, referring to the former FBI director, the Senate Intelligence Committee vice chairman, a former CIA chief and a former national intelligence chief, respectively.
Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper! Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!
the rich asshole also accused Schiff of leaving committee hearings to “illegally leak confidential information,” something the White House has previously suggested Schiff has done.
Schiff, who is the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, has denied such accusations and fired back later Monday morning, saying the rich asshole was spreading "false smears."
"Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or...really anything else," Schiff tweeted.
Mr. President, I see you’ve had a busy morning of “Executive Time.” Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or...really anything else. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
The California lawmaker has been a vocal critic of the rich asshole and in recent days has been a central figure in objecting to the release of a Republican-crafted memo that alleges the Department of Justice abused a surveillance program to target the rich asshole campaign in 2016.
The four-page memo was released Friday after the rich asshole declassified the document. The president tweeted that it “totally vindicates” him in the ongoing probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Schiff, however, said the memo does “quite the opposite.” Multiple Republicans said Sunday that the memo does not vindicate the rich asshole.
Schiff also warned Sunday that the rich asshole is trying to turn the Justice Department into a “personal political tool.”
MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle: Devin Nunes is able to get away with helping the rich asshole obstruct justice because he is "locked away in the safe bosom of Fox News"
Video ››› ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
From the February 5 edition of MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle:
STEPHANIE RUHLE (HOST): Max, I go to you first. And I want to start with the president's tweet this morning accusing [Rep.] Adam Schiff [(D-CA)] of leaking classified information. That's a crime. Is the president of the United States accusing Adam Schiff of committing a crime? Because let's remind everyone, it was less than a week ago that he reached out in a bipartisan way in his State of the Union address. And the rich asshole enthusiasts applauded him, saying, "Anyone who doesn't appreciate, who doesn't see that he's reaching across the aisle is blind." Here we are less than a week later.MAX BOOT: Yeah, I am starting to think, Stephanie, that some rich asshole may not be fully committed to bipartisanship here. He makes a lot of accusations. I mean, remember, it was only a few weeks ago that he was accusing the FBI of, quote, unquote, "treason" because of the Peter Strzok text. So we've all gotten used to the rich asshole throwing out these crazy wild accusations. That's kind of what you expect from him. What's really disturbing to me here is the extent to which Hill Republicans are marching in lockstep behind him. I mean, they are supporting the president's attempts to obstruct justice. To prevent an investigation of a foreign attack on America. I mean, this is shocking and of course, Congressman Nunes, the Inspector Clouseau of the Kremlingate case, is first and foremost trying to throw out all sorts of distraction and confusion and prevent people from focusing on what's really important. It's just pathetic that he's allowed to get away with it.RUHLE: He is. But Devin Nunes is doing this locked away in the safe bosom of Fox News, where he can spout that crazy and they've been hearing it, they've been spreading it for the last year, along with other right-wing outlets.
BY JUDD GREGG, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 02/05/18 06:00 AM EST
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” — President Franklin D. Roosevelt
“The buck stops here” — President Truman
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” — President Kennedy
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” — President Reagan
“I can hear you, the rest of the world can hear you and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon” — President George W. Bush
These are some of the phrases that defined the presidents who spoke them.
Those words gave the American people a hope and faith that their leader, the president of the United States, had the purpose, resolve and understanding to guide the nation through difficult and challenging times.
It is essential to the success of a president that he is able to lift our spirit — and that he enthusiastically conveys the message of optimism that is at the core of our culture.
In order to accomplish this, his defining words must not only resonate when they are said. They must also carry a consistent and lasting resolve.
Our people need to be able to believe and rely on the purpose behind those words.
It is said that President the rich asshole does not assimilate the information that affects his decisions through reading, but rather through audio and visual sources. If that is true, he is probably much closer to the manner of learning of the millennial generation than his own baby boomer generation.
One of the side effects of this manner of acquiring knowledge is that language is less attended. The arrangement of words is not as strong an influence. The use of language can become less effective and acute.
But it is still the case that, even in this “time of the tweet,” the effective use of language defines purpose, attracts support and generates confidence.
More important is the need for there to be faith in the words a president speaks.
Even if some portion of Americans do not like or agree with a president — and that will always be the case, no matter who holds the office — he needs to be seen as having integrity behind his defining words.
In order to be accepted as a leader of purpose, both by those who support him and those who do not, a president must maintain the strength of his words by applying their themes consistently.
The president cannot be seen as taking his own definitional words casually. If he does, he will have no definition.
A president without definition, and the purpose that comes with it, will not be accepted as a capable leader of the nation.
the rich asshole has given two well thought-out and directional speeches in the last two weeks.
One was at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he tried to reset his international image and agenda. The other was his State of the Union address last week, where he effectively set forth his causes and tried to reset his image as a uniter rather then a divider.
Yet even in these two well-prepared speeches, the language did not give a feeling of soaring purpose.
The president’s excessive reliance on his tweets seems to have stolen from him the ability to use words to raise up his audience. This may change; he may arrive at a cadence that connects more personally with the nation’s need.
Certainly, both speeches represented a new and welcome stride in that direction.
However, a concern remains. It resonates in the back of the head of everyone who listened to these two speeches; it is that he will not hold the positions or ideas set forth.
He will change his views, adjust his principles and move in a different direction with some future tweet or brief response to a shouted question from a reporter.
The words that define strong presidents cannot be inconsistent. But consistency does not seem to have found this president yet.
He may not believe it — in fact, it is obvious that he does not believe it — but time is running out for him to set a definition of purpose to his presidency.
If he is not going to waste this incredible opportunity to unite our nation, then he must continue what he has started with these two speeches.
He should use language the way it was supposed to be used. He should say what he believes in a manner that brings forth hope and gives direction to our nation.
He must stick with those themes of inclusion and strength he outlined in these two speeches.
His presidency needs this. More importantly, so does the nation.
Judd Gregg (R) is a former governor and three-term senator from New Hampshire who served as chairman and ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, and as ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations subcommittee.
Here’s A Video Of the rich asshole Lackey Carter Page In Russia Speaking In Support Of Putin During Campaign
Man, you guys, that FISA warrant the FBI obtained to look into some rich asshole advisor Carter Page sure is phony. In response to the GOP’s release of a memo written by Republican staffers claiming that there were improprieties in the way the FBI just…targeted Page, the rich asshole claimed that he was completely vindicated because someone associated with him was hit with phony accusations of working for Russia.
After all, what proof do they have? A video of Page speaking in support of Vladimir Putin in Russia during the rich asshole’s 2016 election campaign? Oh. That’s exactly what they have?
NEW: I just found this video of Carter Page in Moscow, Russia speaking in support of Vladimir Putin, while working on the Trump campaign. He calls the American international affairs strategy "hostile," then goes on to talk about the "failure of US analysts & leaders" #TrumpRussia
It’s worth mentioning that Page has likely been a Russian asset since at least 2013 when a couple of Russian spies found a delightfully stupid conservative who was “eager to help” provide information to the Kremlin — and that this videos corroborates a Politico report that reveals:
In July 2016 Page went back to Russia, in a trip approved by the rich asshole campaign. There was keen interest. Page was someone who might give sharper definition to the candidate’s views on future US–Russian relations. Moscow sources suggest that certain people in the Russian government arranged Page’s visit. “We were told: ‘Can you bring this guy over?’” one source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.One of Russia’s top private universities, the New Economics School, invited Page to give a public lecture. This was no ordinary event but the prestigious commencement address to its class of graduating students. The venue was Moscow’s World Trade CenterRussia’s media hailed Page as a “celebrated American economist.” This, despite the fact that Page’s lecture was distinctly strange—a content-free ramble verging on the bizarre. Page, it seemed, was criticizing U.-.S-led attempts at “regime change” in the former Soviet world. Nobody could be sure. His audience included students and local the rich asshole fans, some of whom were visibly nodding off by the end.
Page’s speech was rambling, but one major topic he touched on was “the United States’ attempts to spread democracy, and how disgraceful they were” according to Guardian reporter Shaun Walker.
According to the Steele dossier, the true purpose of this trip to Russia was so that Page could have clandestine meetings with Russian operatives on behalf of the rich asshole campaign:
Page’s multiple interactions with senior Russians were a matter of growing concern to US intelligence. In the coming months, the FBI seemed to grow suspicious that Page might be a Russian agent. That summer the bureau decided it was going to bug Page’s phone calls. This was no easy matter. To do this lawfully, federal agents had to obtain a warrant. Any application of this kind was voluminous—as then FBI Director James Comey put it, these were often thicker than his wrists.The application included Page’s earlier testimony to the FBI. In June 2013 counter-intelligence agent Gregory Monaghan interviewed Page in connection with the Podobnyy–SVR spy ring. Page said he’d done nothing wrong. Since then, Page had held further meetings with Russian operatives that had not been publicly disclosed, the application said.The FBI presented its evidence before a secret tribunal— the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, or FISA, court, which handles sensitive national security cases. The bureau argued that there were strong grounds to believe that Page was acting as a Russian agent. The judge agreed. From this point on, the FBI was able to access Page’s electronic communications. An initial ninety-day warrant was later renewed.
Republicans want you to think that there’s nothing to the criminal investigation into Page and numerous other figures in the rich asshole’s campaign and administration — but you’d have to be pretty f*cking stupid to believe that at this point.
Internal FBI documents show White House lied about Comey firing
Comey was widely loved by the bureau rank-and-file, not the "grandstander" the rich asshole claimed.
When President the rich asshole decided to fire former FBI director James Comey in May, the White House swiftly moved to damage-control mode.
“He’s a showboat. He’s a grandstander,” the rich asshole told NBC’s Lester Holt at the time. “The FBI has been in turmoil. You know that, I know that, everybody knows that.”
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, attempting to buff up the president’s claims, said she’d talked to more than 50 FBI officials and employees in the 48 hours following Comey’s firing, all of whom, she said, were jubilant about the president’s decision.
“The president knew that Director Comey was not up the task,” she said. “He wanted somebody that could bring credibility back to the FBI. That had been lost over these last several months.”
The rationale behind the rich asshole’s firing of Comey has since been widely debunked and ridiculed. Now, newly revealed internal documents from the FBI show just how far off the White House was in its claims.
I got more than 100 pages of internal FBI correspondence from the week of the Comey firing. It all shows one thing: the White House was lying. It also tells a fascinating story about the Bureau’s reaction. lawfareblog.com/i-hope-instanc…
A trove of emails was acquired over the weekend by Lawfare Blog, which had submitted four Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in June for “communications to the workforce from senior FBI leadership regarding Comey’s firing.” The more than 100 pages of internal emails they got back showed that the FBI’s rank-and-file were shocked by the firing of a widely-respected director.
“The first reaction the documents reflect is simple shock, confusion and disbelief,” Lawfare’s Nora Ellingsen, Quinta Jurecic, Sabrina McCubbin, Shannon Togawa Mercer, and Benjamin Wittes wrote. “The words ‘unprecedented’, ‘tumultuous’, ‘shock’ and ‘surprise’ appear in a great many of the emails.”
According to Lawfare, many members of various FBI field offices went out of their way to deliver gifts to the former director in the wake of his dismissal. The special agent in charge of the Minneapolis field office, Richard Thornton, shared an anecdote about how Comey made it a practice to thank his local law enforcement escort while traveling — even in Los Angeles after finding out he had been fired.
“You could see him take the time to greet and speak to the motorcade escort police… In spite of him just finding out he had been fired as the Director,” Thornton wrote in one email. “He demonstrated his appreciation and respect for the FBI’s law enforcement partners.”
At the time, the bureau also released a rare statement from then-Acting Director Andrew McCabe about the Comey firing, in which he implored his staff to “hang in there.”
“As men and women of the FBI, we are at our best when times are tough,” he wrote. “Please stay focused on the mission, keep doing great work, be good to each other and we will get through this together.”
McCabe resigned last week, after being targeted by the rich asshole and accused of political bias.
Together, these emails show an agency shocked and struggling to cope with the increasing politicization at the hands of the rich asshole and House Republicans, rather than a bureau upset and demoralized by Comey’s leadership, as both the president and the White House suggested in the immediate aftermath.
The politicization appears likely to continue in the wake of Rep. Devin Nunes’ (R-CA) supposedly “shocking” intelligence memo, which was made public on Friday and alleges that the Justice Department’s ongoing Russia investigation has been tainted by political bias. Over the weekend, Republicans and the White House alike suggested that the memo — which focuses on a surveillance warrant requested by the FBI to monitor former the rich asshole campaign adviser Carter Page — proved there was corruption at the highest levels of the department and that the Justice Department’s investigation was simply a witch hunt intended to undermine the rich asshole’s election victory.
As many on Capitol Hill and beyond have since noted, the memo fails to mention any of the underlying documents and research which led to the surveillance request. It also does not take into account the fact that Page was previously known to the FBI due to his many communications with Russian individuals over the years.
the rich asshole calls Schiff 'one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington'
He also lists former FBI Director James Comey and ex-intel chiefs.
President some rich asshole on Monday accused the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee of being among “the biggest liars and leakers in Washington,” listing Rep. Adam Schiff alongside Obama-era intelligence officials, former FBI Director James Comey and another prominent Democrat.
“Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper!” the president wrote on Twitter, placing the California Democrat in the company of fired FBI Director James Comey, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, all of whom the president has feuded with at one time or another.
“Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!” the president continued.
In the year since his election, the rich asshole has waged a rhetorical campaign against government leaks that he believes have unfairly targeted his presidency, including stoking allegations that his campaign colluded with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, has risen to prominence through the rich asshole’s first year in office as central figure in his committee’s ongoing investigation into the Kremlin’s 2016 election interference efforts.
"Mr. President, I see you’ve had a busy morning of 'Executive Time,'" Schiff wrote on Twitter, referencing an Axios report that the rich asshole's daily schedule has been increasingly dominated by free time, officially labeled "executive time," to watch TV and peruse Twitter. "Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or...really anything else."
Video LInk
The president’s attack against Schiff comes days after the Friday release of a memo written by GOP staff House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) that accuses the FBI and Justice Department of malfeasance related to the latter’s ongoing Russia investigation, now overseen by special counselor Robert Mueller. Schiff fought against the release of the memo and has since argued that it represents an inaccurate representation of the facts and does not vindicate the rich asshole’s position that he has been the subject of unfair treatment.
Schiff has previously admitted to harboring ambitions for other offices, saying in an interview last April that statewide office is “certainly something I've thought about in the past and may think about in the future, but I have a pretty full plate as it is.”
Something was missing from this year's slate of Super Bowl ads.
Unlike last year, when Super Bowl advertisers put politics and the rich asshole-related content on display, this year's line-up was far more subtle.
In 2017, the rich asshole supporters called for a boycott of several brands after the big game.
Last year's Super Bowl aired shortly after some rich asshole's inauguration as president. It featured a hair commercial that said "America, we're in for at least four years of awful hair," an 84 Lumber ad with immigrants and a border wall, and a Budweiser ad that told the story of its immigrant founder.
Kia used Melissa McCarthy, who had just started her parody of then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer. Even though she wasn't in character for the spot and the ad wasn't political, it still caused a backlash among the rich asshole supporters.
The tone in 2018 was far more reserved.
This year, viewers saw a T-Mobile ad with a message about equality and a Ram Trucks commercial that used a sermon by Martin Luther King, Jr. to promote the value of service.
None of the ads made direct references to President the rich asshole, and that may have been strategic.
"Given the fact that the rich asshole dominates the news cycle, there was strong aversion to those types of ads," said Jason Damata, an analyst at brand consultant Fabric Media. "the rich asshole was the third rail in that no one went there. They all went after the things that bring us together. They took advantage of the moment."
Damata said this year, most brands chose to "speak to all audiences and not just one segment of the population."
He said they embraced messages of diversity and unity as a way to appeal to everyone.
"Advertisers know that culturally there's some polarization in the country," he said. "But you really saw the all-American fabric showing up. Last year the political ads did fine. It's not like they didn't perform, but I think they made the calculation that people are sick of it. They weren't trying to fire people up."
Damata noted that comedy was again a popular trend and that brands played it "safe and sweet with things we can all agree on." He cited data on the top 10 ads in terms of engagement and noted that five of them had themes of togetherness or featured diverse casts.
Last year's most controversial ad was 84 Lumber's spot, which showed a Hispanic mother and daughter setting out on a journey from their home toward America. It was considered so politically charged that Fox, which broadcast last year's game, deemed part of it too controversial to air on TV. It declined to show the end, in which the migrants come upon a large border wall with a door built into it.
The ad led some the rich asshole supporters to vow not to shop at the building supply company. But it's worth noting that 84 Lumber's owner, Maggie Hardy Magerko, said she voted for the rich asshole. In fact, having a huge door in the wall is something the rich asshole himself mentioned repeatedly in campaign speeches.
Damata said he's unsure whether that ad would've resonated in quite the same way this year.
"The threshold for shock is now so high," he said. That's why most brands "calculated that they're better off going for hope and aspiration -- the softer side of things."
Newt Gingrich praises the rich asshole for declining to be interviewed "by the enemy" NBC at the Super Bowl
Gingrich: "The elite media," including NBC, are "terribly biased, and they're very often factually false"
Video ››› 02-05-2018››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
From the February 5 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Newt, yesterday with the Super Bowl, an American tradition came to an end. President [Donald] the rich asshole decided not to sit down with NBC for the big halftime live interview. He said, "Nope, not going to do it." What do you think of that?NEWT GINGRICH: Good.DOOCY: Why?GINGRICH: Well, because NBC, look -- I find Meet the Press now unreal. I can't watch it anymore. It's so biased. And there's no reason the president should subject himself to going through this charade as though being interviewed by the enemy is a neutral event. The elite media is totally the offensive wing of the left. They have no -- nothing left of the idea of being a neutral news media. And I don't think that he should dignify them by pretending that they're OK. They're not OK. They're terribly biased, and they're very often factually false.DOOCY: Well, apparently he agreed with you.
Fox's Steve Doocy falsely claims Nunes memo vindicates the rich asshole's wiretap lie
Doocy also dubiously claims dossier was only reason for FISA surveillance of a rich asshole official and the FISA court was not told of the dossier's political origin
Video ››› ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
From the February 5 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): And of course [former FBI Deputy Director] Andrew McCabe apparently did tell the [House intel] committee behind closed doors that the FISA warrant would not have been approved without the dossier. And of course, it all came down to when they went to the FISA court and they said, "Hey, we've got this evidence." They never said the political ramifications of who financed the dossier that was unproven. They just kept going back and back. And essentially they lied to spy on Carter Page and anybody in his circle, which meant they could spy on the rich asshole organization, and they did it time after time. And when some rich asshole sent out that famous tweet a number of months ago where they -- "Obama wiretapped me," was he talking about this? Because if that was it, you can kind of connect those dots.
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